


Hold It

by hutchabelle



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dysfunctional Family, Elevators, F/M, Family Drama, Family Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:46:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22900435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hutchabelle/pseuds/hutchabelle
Summary: Katniss Everdeen is having a very bad day, and it's only made worse when a jackass shuts the elevator door in her face. She's surprised to run into him a few days later.
Relationships: Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Comments: 11
Kudos: 123
Collections: Everlark Fic Exchange - Springtime 2019





	Hold It

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt 57: prompt “hey, you’re that asshole that closed the elevator when i yelled at you to hold it!” [submitted by anonymous]
> 
> Rating: T
> 
> Author’s note: I started this story back in April 2019, but it just wouldn’t work. This past November, I finished it during Nanowrimo, but I forgot to post it in the midst of holiday challenges and finishing up other stories. Without further ado, this is my fifth and final submission for the @everlarkficexhcange 2019 event.

“Hold the door! Hold it, please!” Katniss shouted as she sprinted across the lobby of her office building. She wasn’t normally late for work, but she’d had a morning. Missing the elevator would only cap off the worst day of her life.

“That’s hyperbole,” she muttered as she sprinted the last few yards over the marble floor. As she skidded to a stop in front of the elevator bank, she watched in disbelief as a stocky blonde guy with a cocky grin on his face and sinfully blue eyes waggled his fingers at her as the door slid shut.

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” she cursed and pounded on the closed doors. “Why are you such a dick?!”

Infuriated, she stomped over to the call button and stabbed it. She fumed as she watched the other elevators creep downward as slowly as possible. She was sure they decelerated just to make her late for work.

She finally settled at her desk (ten minutes late) and pulled out the files she needed to get through before noon. She hated her job—a soulless entry level position in corporate banking that made her want to chuck it all and go full Thoreau. She was sure holing up in a cabin in the woods and living off the land would make her happier than the rat race she currently lived. But the money was decent, and that’s what she needed for another few months at the very minimum.

The day didn’t get any better as the hours passed and she entered row after row of numbers and figures. Hour after hour. Column after column. Until finally…

She trudged home at the close of day, still pissed at the nameless guy who’d intentionally left her in the lobby and mocked her as the doors shut in her face. She couldn’t shake that something seemed familiar about him, but the last thing she wanted to do was spend any more time considering that bastard.

When she reached her apartment, she unlocked the door and tossed her keys on the side table before moving across the room to the kitchen where boyfriend—gorgeous, kind, patient, and immensely talented Peeta—sat with a cup of hot cocoa and her favorite pastry, his cheese buns from a family recipe.

“Hey,” she murmured and threw herself into his arms. “I missed you today.”

Peeta hugged her tightly and kissed the tip of her nose. “I missed you, too. Sorry about this morning. I had a bad one.”

“It’s okay. I know how frustrating your family can be. It’s not your fault you got a call from them today, completely out of the blue.”

“Still,” he insisted.

“Still,” she agreed, “you could have handled things better.”

“I could have. I’m sorry.” He was silent for a minute and then released her. “My brother drives me up the wall. Why, after all this time, did he decide he wants to be part of my life again?”

Katniss cradled his face and kissed him firmly on the mouth. “I don’t know, but I do know you’re an amazing person. Maybe he realized he’s missing something really special.”

Peeta smiled wryly and squeezed her hand. “Maybe.”

“Or maybe he misses your cooking.”

“I refuse to have another family holiday with that man, no matter how much he begs. He’ll never get my cheese buns again,” he insisted.

Smiling, she gave a soft whoop in support of his declaration. “More for me, then.”

“Your cocoa’s getting cold,” he said. “Go ahead.”

Peeta’s phone rang just as she settled onto a stool and took the first sip of hot chocolate. He glanced at the screen and cursed. Sucking in a long breath, he held it for several seconds and then answered the call.

“Hello. What do you want, Graham? No, I’m not going to discuss Mom. No. No. I’m not— Graham, tell me what you want before I discontinue this call. Yes, discontinue. No, I’m not putting on airs. God damn it, Graham! You’re a pretentious ass.”

Katniss reached over and put her hand on Peeta’s arm to calm him. His breathing quickened and face reddened as he listened to his brother speak. He squeezed his eyes closed and pursed his lips for several moments before answering.

“I don’t really want to meet, no. Because we haven’t seen each other in years. Because I intentionally haven’t contacted any of you. You know why, Graham. No, it’s not okay to pretend things are fine between us.”

He paused again, and she could hear a rush of words from the phone. He looked pained, and she longed to ease the turmoil.

“Fine!” he snapped. “Fine. I’ll meet you—we’ll meet you tomorrow. My girlfriend. Yes, I have a girlfriend. Shut up. Stop now. Text me the specifics. Whatever.”

Peeta hung up and dropped the phone onto the counter in disgust. She raised her eyebrows at him, but he leapt to his feet and began pacing before she could form a sentence.

“What’s going on?” she asked and snaked her arms around his waist.

He shook his head. “I don’t know. He wants to talk about Mom. I’d rather strip naked and run through the streets.”

“I wouldn’t mind stripping you down,” she teased and slipped her hands under his shirt.

“Mmmm…” He leaned down and kissed her, and she melted against him. “I’d like that.”

“I’d like it, too.”

He moved into her, but she could tell his heart wasn’t in it. He wound her braid around his palm and pulled her head back so he could explore her mouth better. She pressed into him, but his mind was clearly somewhere else.

“What’s wrong?”

He sighed and dropped his hands down to her waist. “I’m sorry, honey. I’m just…”

“You’re just…?”

“I’m just not really in the mood. I’m sorry.”

“Peeta, you don’t have to apologize for being upset. I know your family is something that really bothers you.” She carded her fingers through his hair and kissed his jaw where she knew he liked it. “If you want to talk about it, I’ll listen. If you want to sit in front of the TV and drink cocoa and watch mindless TV and say nothing, I’ll sit next to you.”

“Love you,” he murmured with a soft smile. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“Love you back.”

“Let’s go watch some bad television and drink spiked hot chocolate and fall asleep on the couch after having some really dirty sex.”

“You have the _best_ ideas.”

“Hold it. Let me get my phone. I need to record you saying that.”

She rolled her eyes and pushed him toward the living room. “Shhhh… You talk too much.”

“Better show me something else to do with that mouth then.”

“Challenge accepted.”

****

“Are you sure this shirt goes with these pants?” Peeta asked for the fourth time, and Katniss wanted to throw something at him.

“For the five thousandth time, darling, you look amazing.”

“I don’t know…”

“Do you really care what your outfit looks like? You’re just meeting your brother—the brother you haven’t seen in years and who wants to try to talk you out of the family business again.”

He scoffed and made a face at himself in the mirror. “No better way to make Graham mad than to look like I have it all together. He such a narcissist. Hates it when I’m presentable, let alone looking better than him. Besides, it’s hardly a family business anymore, is it? I’m the only Mellark still involved.”

“That’s because you have vision and foresight and a brilliant business mind and didn’t want to exploit the hell out of your dad’s dream the way your brothers and mom did. You know as well as I do that there would be no Mellarks if it wasn’t for you,” Katniss said firmly. “Graham would have run it into the ground in three months.”

“Tell my mom that,” he grumbled and straightened his tie.

“I would, but she hates me.”

“You have the worst in-laws.”

“In-laws-to-be someday,” she chuckled. “But I sure did get the best of batch when I found you.”

“Thanks for going with me tonight. Thanks for being my shield.”

“That’s what you and I do. Protect each other.”

Thirty minutes later, Peeta tugged her across the restaurant and wound his way over to a table near the windows where a stocky, blonde man waited with appraising eyes. There was something familiar about him, but Katniss wasn’t sure exactly why.

“Peeta,” the man said as they drew near. His voice was arrogant and cocky, and her spine stiffened.

“Graham,” Peeta answered in a bite and tightened his grip on her fingers like she was his lifeline.

Peeta’s brother smirked at them and wiggled his fingers in a little wave. Katniss gasped and narrowed her eyes. Her scowl turned into an outright glare, and she huffed a few times before she couldn’t deny her annoyance.

“Hey, you’re that asshole that closed the elevator when I yelled at you to hold it! What a treat. My boyfriend’s brother is a jackass.”

Graham considered her and clearly found her wanting. “Peeta always did like them feisty. Can’t say that I blame him.”

“I beg you not to finish that statement,” Peeta warned.

“Why? What are you gonna do? Beat me up?”

“If I have to.”

“Ah, little brother. I can still whip your ass. Just like I did every year in the wrestling championships. Always second best.”

Katniss looked at her boyfriend and saw red. He was pale and trembling, which was nothing like the confident, sexy, compassionate man she knew.

“I think you should apologize to Peeta,” she suggested, but Graham clearly didn’t have a lick of sense.

“I don’t really think I want to.”

“That’s _really_ too bad,” she lamented with so much sarcasm she was surprised the words didn’t catch on fire as they came out of her mouth. “I _really_ don’t want to do this either, except I _really_ do.”

“What?”

“This,” she answered and punched him in the nose. She grinned at the satisfying crunch and turned to Peeta. “You know, hon, suddenly I’m not very hungry. You want to get out of here?”

“Absolutely,” he beamed at her.

With as much grace as they could muster, they headed to the door. A man was just entering when Katniss called, “Hold it, please.”

This time, there was no finger waggling. Instead, the door was wide open when Peeta and Katniss breezed out of the restaurant and into the night air.


End file.
